The present invention relates generally to sign assemblies, and more particularly to backlighted, changeable copy, sign assemblies.
Backlighted sign assemblies are often used as menu boards in restaurants, delicatessens or cafeterias. They can also be used as directory boards in apartment or office buildings. A light source within the assembly directs light through a face plate of the assembly, illuminating indicia on the face plate but leaving relatively dark a background area surrounding the indicia. Such assemblies offer an attractive and stylish manner of displaying information constituting a pre-arranged sequence of indicia.
Information, such as menu items or tenant names, can be silk-screened onto custom strips which are often used with such assemblies. The strips are removeably retained to the assembly at an elongated window-like opening on the face plate. However, because the information presented on such boards frequently must be changed, the time and expense necessary in preparing such strips makes reliance on their use inconvenient.
The use of a multiplicity of individual wafers in connection with such assemblies is referred to as changeable copy. Each wafer bears at least one indicium, such as an individual letter, and a multiplicity of wafers can be combined to present the desired information. However, the use of such wafers on sign assemblies having the window-like openings necessary to accommodate custom strips results in undesirable light leakage between adjacent wafers.